Posts Tagged ‘same old national’

An Open Letter to the Real Estate Whistleblower

Written By: - Date published: 10:00 am, July 16th, 2015 - 375 comments

We don’t know who the real estate whistleblower is, but we do know they have done New Zealand a significant service. Courage takes many forms, but risking your career to alert your country to a hidden crisis should be recognised for the bravery it is. Thank you, you’ve done us proud.

Video: National muppets

Written By: - Date published: 9:51 am, October 26th, 2008 - 11 comments

Warning – this song will stick in your head!

A ring of truth in the Hollow Men

Written By: - Date published: 11:33 pm, April 17th, 2008 - 18 comments

Congratulations to Dr Brash for fronting up and going to see the play The Hollow Men at the Maidment Theatre in Auckland (that’s based on Nicky Hager’s book of the same name). Dr Brash admitted some parts of The Hollow Men were spot on. I wish I knew which bits weren’t! The Hollow Men is […]

National to sell TVNZ

Written By: - Date published: 12:45 pm, April 14th, 2008 - 33 comments

Despite Key’s best efforts to inoculate against the “hidden agenda on asset sales” perception – he’s now peddling the story that National won’t start selling assets until 2011 – the truth seems to have slipped out. A reliable source close to the party has leaked National’s broadcasting policy for the upcoming election. According to the […]

Bad politics

Written By: - Date published: 8:23 am, April 13th, 2008 - 91 comments

National’s current attempt to stop the Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union from registering as a third party pretty much proves what we all knew. They have no interest in democracy. Rather than accept the decision of the Electoral Commission and move on they’ve decided to appeal the decision and apply for an injunction to stop […]

National retreads deny climate change

Written By: - Date published: 8:30 am, April 2nd, 2008 - 36 comments

Lockwood Smith gave us student debt. Maurice Williamson gave us traffic jams. Now they want to give us global warming. Just days after Al Gore launched his $300m worldwide climate change campaign National retreads Maurice Williamson and Lockwood Smith are refusing to answer questions about whether or not they even believe climate change is happening. […]

Slippery John in search of a hot-button

Written By: - Date published: 2:46 pm, March 12th, 2008 - 15 comments

To follow on from Steve’s post earlier today, it looks like National’s focus groups have thrown them up another hot-button issue – Key has alliteratively labeled this the “ballooning bureaucracy”. Back in December we posted on him effectively saying he was all for sacking prison and parole staff as well as the people who administer […]

Reactions to New Zealand Fast Forward

Written By: - Date published: 10:32 am, March 12th, 2008 - 1 comment

Groups that issued press releases welcoming the Government announcement of the $700 million research and development fund for argiculture (press releases on Scoop): NZ Veterinary Association – Science funding just in the nick of time Science New Zealand – Science New Zealand welcomes science fund announcement Export New Zealand – Export NZ welcomes innovative funding […]

Once bitten

Written By: - Date published: 1:48 pm, March 7th, 2008 - 33 comments

No surprise to see English fronting the Toll debate given Slippery John’s abysmal performance this week. Check out Bill in the background of this shot, are those daggers coming out his eyes? To his credit English gave much straighter answers about Toll than we would have got from Key and left little doubt about where […]

Deja vu

Written By: - Date published: 11:42 am, March 5th, 2008 - 13 comments

Looks like slipperiness runs in the National Party family…

National: is there anything they won’t privatise?

Written By: - Date published: 4:03 pm, March 4th, 2008 - 17 comments

Burqa Bob wants to buy heartland rugby. In other news, Bill English plans to sell our sunshine hours to a Finnish consortium and Key has mooted flogging off our children’s laughter to the highest bidder. [Update: Kiwiblogblog doesn’t think it’s so funny]

Joining the (blue) dots

Written By: - Date published: 5:48 pm, February 27th, 2008 - 42 comments

Perhaps you’ve heard about the Blue Chip blues? The company is in the news again today, and not just for allegedly breaking a sting of laws. The couple featured in the article have lost their home and hundreds of further ‘mum and dad’ investors may still lose their savings. The photo at left (no, it’s […]

National’s history of rewriting history

Written By: - Date published: 3:29 pm, February 26th, 2008 - 16 comments

You think they’d learn. Wikiscanner reports that someone in Parliament has been busy – busy expunging potentially embarassing facts about a variety of MPs. This one’s about Allan Peachey. You might remember Allan from such debacles as the Peachey/Rich bulk funding controversy and also the little number above that he’d evidently rather history forgot – […]

National’s house of straw

Written By: - Date published: 5:38 pm, February 14th, 2008 - 13 comments

Affordable housing is the topic de jour. The foundation of affordable housing in New Zealand and other developed nations has long been houses built by the government and rented cheaply: state housing. Since the construction of the first state house in 1937, it has been a history of Labour building them and National selling them […]

Dead rats

Written By: - Date published: 11:42 am, February 4th, 2008 - 45 comments

This cartoon from Moreu got me thinking… If interest free student loans, Kiwisaver and Kiwibank are dead rats for the Nats, what the f— are the live ones? The fact that they see these as ‘unpleasantries to be endured’ surely speaks volumes. UPDATE: Someone’s just suggested “Murry McCully” as a live rat. Evidently this is […]

Key speech: strategic blunder?

Written By: - Date published: 2:11 pm, January 29th, 2008 - 113 comments

So this is John Key’s ambition: throwing troubled teens in boot camp, beating up on beneficiaries and criminalising our children. I’ve only had a quick read through the speech in my lunch break so it’s possible I’ve got this wrong, but I get the distinct impression that Key has made a major strategic error here. […]

An emerging threat to MMP?

Written By: - Date published: 5:36 pm, January 24th, 2008 - 100 comments

After Brash and the extreme right were exposed in The Hollow Men the Nats changed their leader hoping for a fresh start. What’s becoming apparent is that National’s shady backers haven’t changed. The policy and the cash are coming from the same people they always have – people like Peter Shirtcliffe who’s evidently now helping […]

Same old faces, same old tactics

Written By: - Date published: 2:06 pm, January 23rd, 2008 - 251 comments

Well it looks like Free Speech Coalition founder Cameron Slater has taken a break from stalking John Minto and photoshopping underage bloggers’ faces onto porn and decided to finally publish the Coalition’s updated donors list (and only a month after he said he would). Interestingly, a “P Shirtcliffe” is listed as having donated $5000. Now […]

National disses minimum wage

Written By: - Date published: 2:01 pm, December 20th, 2007 - 128 comments

National’s comments on the minimum wage show a party that has no answers on how to close the wage gap with Australia. Just a day after the Government announced plans to increase the minimum wage to $12 next year – an increase of more than 70% since 1999 – John Key’s industrial relations spokesperson Kate […]

Same old National

Written By: - Date published: 1:46 pm, December 19th, 2007 - 62 comments

The National Party have reverted to type. They’re back to stoking the politics of fear and division. Anyone who thought that things might be different under Key were today proved wrong when David Farrar, Kiwiblog author and National Party HQ staffer, launched a billboard campaign attacking Helen Clark, Winston Peters and Peter Dunne – likening […]

National and the wage gap

Written By: - Date published: 2:24 pm, December 13th, 2007 - 74 comments

I see National’s complaining about the wage gap between New Zealand and Australia again. As usual they have no answers on what to do about it other than to blindly hope that tax cuts for the rich will lead to economic growth and somehow it’ll all trickle down into the ordinary worker’s pay packet. Ever […]

Style over substance: no real answers

Written By: - Date published: 9:54 am, December 13th, 2007 - 58 comments

In a continuation of Key’s “style over substance” policy approach, his consultants have found him a new buzzword – “infrastructure”. “Australia’s been more productive because they’ve invested in infrastructure… they’ve made sure they’ve got private sector capital going in there as well as the public sector investing… we need to deliver that infrastructure“ he said […]

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  • 2024 Ngarimu VC and 28th (Māori) Battalion Memorial Scholarships announced
    ...
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  • Support for Northland emergency response centre
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  • Celebrating 20 years of Whakaata Māori
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